United Charities Building ca. 1928

The United Charities Building was built (as the name suggests) to assist the Charity Organization Society. Founded in England in 1869, the Charity Organization Society was aimed at uniting protestant charities to combat social problems. A wealthy new yorker banker, John Stewart Kennedy wanted to provide the charities under its umbrella (which represented thousands of prominent families and hundreds of churches) with a headquarters from which to conduct their work. Similarly, Kennedy wished to include other New York Charities that weren't strictly protestant such as the Children's Aid Society or the New York Mission and Tract Society. The remaining space could be rented by charities at rates significantly below what they would be paying elsewhere. Kennedy selected the architect Robert Henderson Robertson due to Robertson’s previous experience working with charities. Built in 1893, the building housed charities for more than a century until it was sold in 2014 to developers. It was made a national historic landmark in 1991 due to the work of its inhabitants.